1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of data processing networks and more particularly to a system and method in which network protocol processing is distributed between multiple processing entities to improve efficiency.
2. History of Related Art
In the field of data processing networks, network overhead is consuming an increasingly large percentage of system resources. Network overhead includes, among other items, the overhead associated with the construction of network packets. More specifically, data processing networks almost universally employ some form of multi-layered network protocol to facilitate communication among unlike systems and platforms. Perhaps the most widely implemented of such network protocols includes the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet protocol (IP), which provide the backbone for a large number of data processing networks including the Internet.
When coupled with high-bandwidth network connections, network protocol processing imposes a significant overhead on a host system. The problem is frequently aggravated by the need for data originating from the server. In many cases, the data required to fulfill a network request resides in the system memory of the server. In a conventional server environment, the protocol processing is tightly bound to the server's central processing unit such that, in addition to determining the appropriate headers, the CPU is also responsible for retrieving the required data from memory and “assembling” the header and data into a properly formatted packet. By imposing the entire network communication overhead on a single processing entity such as the system's CPU, the conventional network data processing system requires an undesirably disproportionate amount of time just to maintain the network connection. It would be desirable to implement a system and method in which protocol processing is distributed among various processing entities in the system to achieve greater efficiency and performance without substantially altering the hardware.